Prepare, hand over, support, review. Prepare: choose the task and write the brief. Hand over: give it to the right person with a named level of authority. Support: be available, but only when asked. Review: compare the finished work with the brief, within a day, and give the credit. Delegation usually fails in stage one, by skipping the brief, and shows up as a problem in stage four.
Stage one: prepare
Pick a task that would be fine at 70 percent of your standard. Choose a person with the skill and the hours. Write five lines: result, audience, must-haves, due date, done checks. This stage takes ten minutes and decides everything after it.
Stage two: hand over
Share the brief. Ask what is unclear. Say the level: "You decide and tell me." Agree the one moment when you will look at the finished work. The handover should end with a yes you can quote.
Stage three: support
Available, not present. Answer questions when asked. Help with a problem the person flags, without taking the task. Do not request drafts. Do not check in on a schedule they did not ask for. This is the stage where micromanagement happens, and it happens because stage one was thin.
Stage four: review
Open the work next to the brief. Say what matched and what did not, with the fix, within a day. Give the credit by name. Note what the next brief should include. The review is what makes the next delegation easier.
Where M-Tracker fits
Stages one and four are what M-Tracker handles for every task. The brief holds the result, audience and must-haves. When the person sends the work, M-Tracker compares it with the brief and writes a plain review they see first, so stage four is half done before you open it. Stage three stays empty because you can see the result is coming without asking.
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Questions people ask
How long should stage three last?
As long as the task, with no contact from you unless they reach out.
What if stage four shows the work missed badly?
Go back to stage one and look at the brief. Most misses start there.
Are the four stages the same as the seven steps?
Yes, grouped. The steps are the detail inside the stages.
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